I’ll keep this simple... an escaped maniac finds his way into a theater production, grabs an axe/knife/chainsaw, dons an OWL head mask, and goes to town on the trapped actors. Yeah… I love this movie—the kills are great, the killer looks awesome, there’s plenty of gore, and Soavi fills it with lots of color/nice shots… plus there’s the feather/key scene... a clinic on putting on tension! Worth it alone for the opening owl head ballet scene!

At a time when the greats of Italian horror were starting to become more erratic with 
their material, enter Michele Soavi. First with the 1985 documentary Dario Argento's World of Horror, and followed by 1987's Stagefright, 1989's The Church, 1991's The Sect, and finally…

Wait, how was this not higher on my watchlist? A troupe of stage actors gets locked in during a rainstorm with a deranged killer on the loose—doesn’t sound that unique on its surface, fine. But what if all the kill-count-fodder characters were memorable, well-written, sassy theater kids? What if the script was filled to the brim with phenomenally self-aware dark humor? What if the lighting, coloring, and general outrageousness mirrored the serial-killer-based play they were already rehearsing? What if the faceless slasher donned a fucking GIANT OWL HEAD PIECE and stumbled into the theater’s tool shop, finding a litany of potential murder weapons ranging from an axe to a power drill to a goddamn chainsaw? What if he utilized each…

From its opening moments, this film declares itself to be a masterpiece of style (screencaps here; spoilers within). It toys with a neon, cocaine kind of atmosphere, but it is firmly rooted in giallo mystery, slasher suspense, and Hitchcockian flair. It is theatrical (how could it not be?), and there are issues with bad delivery and what I think was bad dubbing (?). The soundtrack is a bit mixed in quality. It occasionally lapses into characters doing stupid things, and the characterization isn't entirely profound. We get a few moments that show more than just a bunch of frightened people, but for the most part, it just has some surface personalities primed for emotional conflict and fear.

And that's fine,…

🇮🇹 Italy 🔪 Slasher 🎬 Soavi 💎 Gem #129 (1987) 👹

”I'm honestly shattered about Betty. But I need the money. And I need a hit. Just like all the rest of you."

Well, that’s the end of Michele Soavi’s four major films. He can easily hold his own with Fulci and Argento. His work is stylish, imaginative, literary, and nearly always visually striking. This is true of Deliria, which is in contention for prettiest slasher.

This is a straight meta-slasher, not at all a giallo. That was a surprise; his work has never been exactly what I was expecting. The owl-head costume from the murder play is inspired. There’s a reason every review seems to gravitate towards that choice:…

Spooktober IV: Morte all'italiana

GIALLI: THE FAILED MUSICAL!

Michele Saovi is back on this marathon (I swear it's not on purpose!) with his first feature film, which captures on many of the campy humor and gore all set in a rather original setting, in this case, a rehearsal for a very dubious theater play that gets the visit of a deranged serial killer.

It takes a bit for the kills to come, but once they do, it's all kinds of gruesome joy. The cinematography is really great, like the scene where the victim falls through a floor and a bright flash of light illuminates both the murderer and the body on the ground. Also, there's a fantastic tension-building moment when…

After enduring Metamorphosis, I needed some really GOOD Italian horror to return my senses to some sort of balance...and what better film than this beautiful 80’s masterpiece!

A group of thespians find themselves locked in a theater with a crazy killer! This is one of my all-time favorite slashers for so many reasons. Directed by Argento protege Michele Soavi, this is just a damn fun movie. I feel like even in the hands of a less capable director, this could have still been a bananas good time (like Ghosthouse) but Soavi is incredibly capable and presents us with a great looking affair. The lighting is exquisite. The camerawork is very impressive. There are brilliant artistic touches throughout. There is a…